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Tuesday, 8 November 2016

All The Queen's Presidents...to be continued...

The Queen with President Obama and Michelle Obama - Barack Obama is the twelfth US President to hold office during Elizabeth II's record breaking reign(photo Pete Souza [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

A dozen is about to turn to thirteen. The long, record breaking reign of Elizabeth II has seen many things including twelve US Presidents. Tonight, that number will change as a new President is elected in one of the most talked about elections of her whole 64 years and counting on the throne. As the US goes to the polls to choose the 43rd President, here's a look back at those who have held the office during the Queen's reign. Twelve right now and about to change but who will the next image be?

Harry S. Truman, Democrat, 1945 - 1953The Presidency of Harry S Truman was nearing its end when Elizabeth II succeeded her father in February 1952. He had welcomed her to Washington in November 1951 while she was still Princess Elizabeth and heiress to the throne. Harry S Truman had become President in 1945 on the death of Franklin D Roosevelt and won the election of 1948. He left office in 1953 at the end of his second term and died in 1972.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President in 1952, the same year that the Queen took the throne, and he was sworn in, as is traditional, in the following January, just months before the coronation of Elizabeth II. The new Queen and the new President met several times and in 1959, Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the UK and was hosted at Balmoral by Elizabeth II and her family. He left office at the end of his second term in 1961. He died in 1969.

The images of the Queen hosting John and Jacqueline Kennedy, at the White House in June 1961 are among some of the most famous of Elizabeth II with a US President. The dinner in their honour, held at Buckingham Palace, came in the middle of a visit to the UK which had seen the US President meet UK Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, as well as attend the christening of Jackie's sister's little girl in London. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22nd 1963. In 1965, the Queen welcomed Jacqueline Kennedy and her two children to Runnymede where a memorial to JFK was unveiled.

Lyndon B. Johnson became President on the death of John F. Kennedy and won the election of 1964. He never met the Queen - the only one of the twelve Presidents of her reign not to - but in 1965 he hosted Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, when they made an official visit to the United States. Lyndon B. Johnson left office at the end of his second term and died in 1973.

The only President to resign, Richard Nixon also had some high profile meetings with the Queen and her family. The Queen and Nixon met during her first State visit to the US in 1957 when he was Vice President. The following year, he visited London and dined with the Queen at the US Embassy. During his presidency he was hosted at Buckingham Palace by the Queen in 1969 and they met again the following year at Chequers, the country residence of the Prime Minister. Richard Nixon resigned from office following the Watergate scandal in 1974. He died in 1994.

Gerald Ford hosted the Queen on her second State Visit to the United States in 1976. He had become President following Nixon's resignation and is the only the only person to become both Vice President and President without facing an election, having succeeded Spiro Agnew as VP in 1973. He lost the election of 1976 and left office in January 1977. Gerald Ford died in 2006.

James Earl Carter became President in 1977, the Silver Jubilee year of the Queen, and just months after taking office he visited London for a NATO Summit where he and other leaders were hosted at a banquet at Buckingham Palace by Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh. Jimmy Carter lost the elections of 1980 and left office in 1981. Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He now lives in Georgia.

Ronald Reagan met with the Queen many times during his two terms in the Oval Office and the images of this President with Elizabeth II are among the most best known of her reign. President Reagan and his wife, Nancy , made a State Visit to the UK in 1982 when they famously went horse riding together at Windsor. The Queen made her third State Visit to the US the following year while the two met again in 1984 when President Reagan attended the G7 summit held that year in London. There were also meetings at anniversary commemorations for World War Two. Just months after he left office, in 1989, the Queen presented him with an honorary knighthood in London. Ronald Reagan died in 2004.

George H. W. Bush first met Elizabeth II as President of the United States during a visit to London in 1989, the year he took office. He would go on to host the fourth State Visit of Elizabeth II's reign to the US when he welcomed the Queen to Washington in 1991. He lost elections the following year. In 1993, he was presented with the honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath by the Queen in London. They would meet again during another State Visit, hosted by his son, George W. Bush, during his Presidency.

William Jefferson Clinton made many visits to the UK including a State Visit in 1995 when he and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, were hosted at Buckingham Palace by the Queen. They had met the year before at 50th anniversary commemorations for D Day. President Clinton also visited Buckingham Palace in the last months of his presidency, in December 2000, when in the UK. Bill Clinton served two terms as President and left office in January 2001.

George Walker Bush first met Elizabeth II on a visit to the UK just months after taking office in 2001. That encounter, at Buckingham Palace, would be the first of many. Along with his wife, Laura, he made a State Visit to the UK in 2003 when he was hosted again at Buckingham Palace while in 2007 he welcomed the Queen on her fifth State Visit to the United States. Their paths crossed once more in 2008, in the finals months of his presidency, during another visit to the UK. George W. Bush left office in 2009 at the end of his second term.

The warm relationship between the current US President, Barack Obama, and his wife, Michelle Obama, was clear for all to see on their visit to London where the First Lady famously put her arm around the Queen and got a hug right back. That meeting, during a G20 summit in London, was among several of President Obama's time in the White Office which include the State Visit of 2011 and commemorations for the 70th anniversary of D Day in 2014. Their latest meeting was in 2016 at Windsor. Barack Obama will be succeeded by the winner of the polls of November 8th 2016...and another name will be added to the list of all the Queen's Presidents.